Posts Tagged ‘ Valiant Comics ’

I’m not sure, but I think I may have an extremely mild form of OCD. I base this purely on my need to catalog and alphabetize, which has led me to sort comics ever since I first started buying them, and not on any need to clean, obviously.

When I was using a PC at home I started using Comic Collecterz (or something like that) but since I moved over to Mac I’ve moved over to the awesome web based www.stashmycomics.com.

Yes, I’m that nerdy.

Anyway as I get the list up to date (and it takes a while) I figured I’d post what I have from time to time because clearly I’m not quite blatant enough about how nerdy I am.

So: Acclaim Comics. For a while in the 1990s, Acclaim produced a line of comics based on the Valiant characters. Whilst the comics were generally good, and many had some great creators (Waid, Priest, Ellis, Ennis, Busiek, Nicieza, Bright, Eaton, Wood, Kayanan to name a few), they never really clicked with fans. Readers of the old Valiant line were annoyed that all the past had been jettisoned, and perhaps other readers were simply buying too many other books.

Sadly, all the series died out before they hit two years, but I did stick with a lot of them for a while – 17 issues in the case of Quantum & Woody and Troublemakers, and slightly less in for a few others. I imagine the majority of these comics can be found lurking in dollar bins or cheaper at most conventions and many are definitely worth a look – especially the two I mention above, X-O Manowar, and the Eternal Warriors and Turok one-shots.

There’s also a couple of licensed Sliders comics in there because come on, who doesn’t like Sliders?

Anyway, if you’re interested in such things:

I decided to dig through the data on best selling comics going back 10 years, and these were the top-selling books that month:That’s some list…with the new look Superman topping it with a glow-in-the-dark cover no less – and its the only DC book in the top 10!

That done, I decided to dig a little deeper to see what books I was getting regularly (so no annuals, limited series, one-shots or books I picked up to try them out). Now in March 1997, I was travelling Australia, so I only picked a few up – although I had a large box accumulating back in the UK. So what did I eventually get (in sales ranking order)?

As it turns out, I got a lot.

Superman (Collector’s Edition) #123 – I was on all the Superbooks at this point – and only left them again briefly prior to the 1999 reboot. Never left since.

Uncanny X-Men #344 – A lacklustre space saga that led into the trial of Gambit…

X-Men #64 -…while this tied up a Madripoor storyline and led into Zero Tolerance.

Fantastic Four #7 – Heroes Reborn. Probably the best of the bunch.

Iron Man #7 – Heroes Reborn. So-so.

Avengers #7 – Heroes Reborn. NOT good.

Captain America #7 – Heroes Reborn. Probably the worst of the bunch, even after Liefeld
left.

Adventures of Superman #546 – See above

Action Comics #733 – See above

Witchblade #13 – Picked this up for a while as I liked the concept. Turner’s art was better in those days, too.

Cable #43 – Joe Casey and Ladronn were making this readable again

Superman: The Man of Steel #67 – See above

Darkness #4 – Liked this book a lot in its initial arc, although it petered out quickly.

JLA #5 – The tryouts for the JLA – Hitman checking out Wonder Woman was priceless!

Amazing Spider-Man #423 – Post clone saga, the Spider books struggled to stay interesting. I drifted away for a few months just after this. In fact, this was the ONLY Spider-book I was getting at this point.

Incredible Hulk #453 – PAD was nearing the end of his run and at this point, it was beginning to show. Forgettable.

Deadpool #5 – Kelly & McGuinness were making this an unanticipated must-read for me.

Thunderbolts #2 – The big twist was revealed, and it really felt like a must-read book at this time!

Supergirl #9 – PAD and Gary Frank rounded out their first story arc – and it was apparent that this was a decidedly darker Supergirl.

WildC.A.T.S #36 – This was the Savant Garde spin-off launch issue, following Moore and Charest’s departure.

Ka-Zar #1 – I always liked Lord Plunder, and Waid and Kubert really brought this book to life.

Elektra #7 – This was TERRIBLE…Elektra as a dancer? Nice Deodato art, though.

DV8 #6 – I loved this book. Ah, Sideways Bob…

Green Lantern #86 – I always liked Kyle Rayner, but looking back this was kind of a lightweight book round about this time.

Nightwing #8 – A golden age for the book, with Dixon and McDaniel building both Bludhaven and the Nightwing-Blockbuster enmity into a driving force.

Catwoman #45 – I can honestly say I have no idea why I was reading this book at the time – it was dire.

Robin #41 – Lightweight but enjoyable under Dixon.

Flash #125 – Waid (here partnered with Brian Augustyn) looked like he was getting pretty burnt out round about this point in time – a few months down the line he would take a year long break and leave the book in the hands of some guys called Morrison and Millar.

Savant Garde #1 – Didn’t last long, but this was a fun little book.

Daredevil #364 – Joe Kelly and Cary Nord brought a lot of fun back to this book – this was a really great run.

Teen Titans #8 – Kind of enjoyed Jurgens’ take on the team, even if it never felt like a viable long-term prospect.

Impulse #25 – Fun, fun book.

Superboy #39 – This was in a real creative rut at this point.

Hitman #14 – Best. Series. Ever.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #3 – I was trying, but I just didn’t get it!

Legion of Super-Heroes #92 – The Legion books were both great at this point – just good solid fun.

Legionnaires #48 – See above.

Trinity Angels #1 – I picked up all the Valiant relaunches. This one was largely forgettable except it had great Maguire art.

Wynonna Earp #4 – This was another underrated book with too short a run. By Beau Smith and Joyce Chin.

X-O Manowar #6 – Valiant; and pretty good by Waid, Auustyn and Sean Chen.

Green Arrow #120 – I miss the days when Connor could handle his own book

Shadowman #5 – Valiant. Kinda creepy but unremarkable. I seem to remember great art by Charlie Adlard.

Magnus Robot Fighter #3 Valiant – forgettable, unfortunately, although this made me take note of Mike McKone.

Aztek the Ultimate Man #10 – Final issue of this underrated gem.

Turok Quarterly: Spring Break in the Lost Land – whatever happened to Rafael Kayan? I liked this a lot – and loved the N64

Ninjak #5 -Valiant; and quite possibly Kurt Busiek’s worst work ever.

Troublemakers #4 – Valiant. Fabian Nicieza’s pet project, and one book that I would love to see return somehow. Like Runaways meets New Warriors.

Quantum & Woody #2 – Valiant. Those who read this loved it; those who didn’t (and there were a lot!) missed out big time.

Wow….and I thought I bought a lot now. This kind of puts it in perspective a bit – though I am still dropping a couple of books.